Alternative Fleets - Non-Military!

Strange name, right? But here's the deal... Non-violent victory conditions result in considerably more "end turn" button and considerably less action and fleet movement. But what if I told you it didn't have to be that way?

Introducing: Civilian ship options!

At Amplitude's discretion there could be one or more options in each category, but in the interest of completeness, I will jot down all my ideas. Additionally we could explore the viability of having just a few civilian ship hulls, with the capabilities coming down to which civilian ship mods you install.

One other thing that is absolutely and completely necessary for any of this to work is for civilian/exploration ships to not induce diplomatic anger from the AI controlled empires! Even if nothing else from this proposal is adopted, I hope that in the future, they implement exploration ships not counting as military vessels for trespassing! But I digress.... onto the proposal.

Category 1. Mining Ships

In this category we would find vessels that can move from system to system extracting valuable minerals (industry) and strategic resources. Potential for adding a diplomatic option for mining rights with other empires.

    A. Prospector- Small -  Can uncover strategic resources via "prospecting module", with minimal resource extraction capability (surface level mining, one time looting?).

    B. Mining Vessel- Medium - Long-term mining capability of strategic resources. Also gives a small amount of industry and dust to one of your colonies (chosen through a menu with the industry being added to the system value).

    C. Planetcracker- Huge - Largest of the mining category this ship rapidly extracts strategic resources as well as industry/dust. However, this ship also inflicts depletion points upon the planet it is mining from.

Category 2. Science Ships

In this category we would find ships dedicated to exploring the cosmos and studying it to advance science.

    A. Explorer- Small - This ship would remain the same although strategic resources would be discovered through a prospecting ship. To make up for this, the explorer should have a base speed increase, as well as a base evasion increase to make surviving pirate attacks on the frontier more likely.

    B. Science Vessel- Medium - This ship would be sent to systems with discovered anomalies, non system nodes such as nebulas and neutron stars, as well as being able to be sent to a system to increase science values. Perhaps another important addition for this class would be introducing special quests that require science ships to study phenomenon to advance the quest, or perhaps requiring science vessels to research certain nodes in the field, before your planet bound labs can continue their research (in order to advance to the next era or something like that).

    C. EXO Lab- Huge - "EXperimental Orbiting Laboratory", this vessel would essentially be a slow moving science station, dedicated to potentially hazardous but highly rewarding science that couldn't be conducted amongst a planetary population. Perhaps there could be a random number generator rolling every (15?) turns to determine if research continues, if there is a breakthrough, or if there is a disastrous outcome. Example: You choose to research advanced microbiology - the outcomes include a deadly plague being unleashed that requires containment, or a beneficial super serum that enhances your empires growth rate, or makes for stronger soldiers, etc. Or perhaps you are doing weapon testing technology and one option is getting a special hidden weapon, and the other is that there was a breach in security and now certain pirate fleets are armed with this technology. Something along those lines, wherein this entire process could be done via quest lines for simplicity.

Category 3: Trade/Dust ships

Now I know that trade is conducted through the Trade HQ and subsidiaries, but I think there is room for some other action.

    A. Trade Fleet- Small/Special -This option wouldn't so much be a single ship, as it is a flotilla of logistical ships that the player could move around the galaxy map. Why would the player do this? Because it can establish temporary trade subsidiaries at friendly minor and major factions with a cost/benefit of mobility versus vulnerability.

    B. Collector - Medium - This ship would scour nearby unpopulated systems for their dust and luxury resources, plain and simple. Overtime the dust collected would decrease, therby forcing the collector to move again. Potential for using him as a tax collector later in game, with an approval hit to the system.

    C. Scavenger - Small - Now I don't know if there is a mechanic in game for this to work, but what I am envisioning is an after battle dust and science collector, based on the amount of battles/command points destroyed in a certain system. It would require the game to know if battles had happened previously, but if it could happen, might be fun. Also could allow for quests to occur - e.g.: recover a lifepod, find a new module, etc.

Category 4: Influence/Culture Ships

This category has some very different ideas, that I nonetheless think would be beneficial to include in the game. All of these ship ideas coud easily have associated quests invloving diplomatic and social consequences. In addition, there most likely would need to be additional diplomatic options for removing ambassadors, etc...

    A. Ambassadorial Vessel- Small - This ship would function as an embassy of sorts for other factions, gaining you a small amount of influence per turn, but more importantly, would also put diplomatic pressure on the other empire as well as increase an AI's disposition to the player. Limit effects to one ship per empire.

    B. Propaganda Ship- Small - This would be very important for those matters of soft power a leader runs into from time to time. This ship would increase the rate of ownership change for new acquisitions, reduce pacific conversion, and increase the happiness of disgruntled colonists.

    C. Cultural Broadcast Ship- Small - This would function as a more "offensive" form of soft power as you would gain a moderate amount of influence per turn when you have these amongst another factions territory, as well as increasing the rate of pacific conversion.

Conclusion 

To sum this all up, I have just been brainstorming on ways to make peaceful games more engaging, rewarding, and in-depth, and I figured that the civilian ships were lacking in the Endless Space universe. As I said previously, I just threw all my ideas out there (as organized as possible of course) and obviously any idea could use some tweaking. So if y'all like the individual ships let me know, or if you think modules with different civilian size hulls would make more sense, let it be known! Also as you can see, I didn't include a "food" category of the FIDSI designation, as I didn't think it would make sense or be particularly fun. However if y'all have any ideas throw 'em out there yourself! Thanks for reading and thanks for Amplitude for making such a fun game!